Cap on political party contributions moves forward

Faulconer proposed moving forward with the Ethics Commission’s previous recommendation to limit party contributions at $3,000 for district races and $12,000 for citywide races. He also said he would support the higher limits if they are approved by the Ethics Commission and wanted both options forwarded to the council. That motion failed on a 2-3 vote.

“There may or may not be a magic number,” Faulconer said. “I don’t pretend to know what that magic number is, but I do support and have always supported campaign contribution limits. I think they work. I think they’re important and I think why we’re here today is the question of how do you make them effective?”

Alvarez responded later, “We’ve been warned we’re going to be sued if it’s $3,000 and $12,000. Maybe some people want to go down that path so that we get sued so that there are no limits.”

An attorney for the local Democratic Party said the party supported the $10,000/$20,000 proposal.

If such limits had been in place during the past three years, party contributions to candidates would have totaled $198,000 instead of $1.3 million.

The proposal doesn’t apply to unlimited independent spending by special-interest groups such as business and labor which is protected by courts. Unlike political parties, those groups cannot give directly to city candidates.

The current limits on individual contributions are $500 for council races and $1,000 for citywide races so the new party limits would allow parties to contribute 20 times as much as individuals.

Fundraising for the next election cycle begins June 3 — a year before the 2014 primary — and the council committee wanted to bypass normal rules to enact the new limits before then. The City Attorney’s Office will review whether that’s possible. If it doesn’t go into effect immediately, there could be a window of a month or two for parties to unlimited sums to candidates before the cap is in place.